Who We Work With (& Who We Don't!)
At Guardian Due Diligence, we’re advocates for buyers. That means that we value your time. Time is of the essence in every deal, and you don’t want to be slowed down in your deal working with a diligence partner that’s not suited to your deal or your needs. Before we start working together, let’s make sure that we’re a good match.
We’re comfortable in our market helping new buyers and self-funded searchers close small to medium sized acquisition deals. Allow us to paint a picture for you. Listed below you’ll find descriptions of our ideal clients, those determined entrepreneurs that we work with every day, as well as those who just aren’t a great fit for our services. Either way, we’re excited you’re interested in working with us, and we look forward to connecting.
Ideal Client: You’re Working On Your First Deal Or You’re An Inexperienced Buyer
You’ve been researching due diligence along the way, and you’re getting comfortable with taking on a personal guarantee. You’re simultaneously running a diligence process on a particular deal, and running personal diligence on the idea of doing a deal overall.
Your concerns and questions might sound like this:
When is diligence done?
I heard this detail impacts EBITDA. Does it?
Does this add-back make sense?
I’m not getting data and it’s 3-4 weeks into the LOI. What should I do?
The good news is you’ve come to the right place. We have answers.
Our process is set up for you. As part of our process, consultation, and deal coaching, we answer the #1 question buyers want to know: Is this business worth what I’m going to pay?
Ideal Client: You’re a Buyer Who Understands Risk
You’re a buyer who understands a million-dollar personal guarantee. You understand that spending $30k to protect $3 million is only spending 1% to protect against what could go wrong. You understand this is the security you need. You properly understand the risks and are looking for reviewed, tested, and community-applauded vendors as the best solution. You’re our client.
Ideal Client: You’re A Prudent Entrepreneur
You seek the upside no matter what amount of resources and capital you initially control. You do research. You’re calculated, smart, researched, and learned. You don’t see your deal in terms of costs and expenses but in terms of return and revenues. You’ll see the best results with Guardian because we built our products for you!
We know where we fit into the acquisition entrepreneurship space, and we’re passionate about helping new buyers and self-funded searchers close the deal they’ve been searching for.
If it doesn’t seem like we’re going to be a great fit, don’t worry; we can still be friends! We might be able to point you in the direction of someone who can help. Shoot us an email, and we’d be happy to help.
Incompatible Client: You Have 10+ Years of Transaction Accounting Experience with Deals Under $5 million
You’re a do-it-yourself person who has done transaction accounting before. You can tear through messy, private company financials. You understand how Quickbooks bank statements work and how they’re derived. You understand what each document in the due diligence checklist is. If that sounds like you, we won’t be an ideal match. You already know enough to get through much of this process. Take advantage of the specialized knowledge that you’ve gained. We offer a full solution and are not really able to just fill in the holes that you’re missing. If you can get 90 percent of the way to an answer, you should certainly go and get that answer. You’re not a great fit for us if you have already done this work in a professional capacity for 2 to 5 years
Private-equity professionals and venture capital professionals are not our ideal customers. A private equity professional working on $100 million deals would not find what they need with us. We specialize in deals around $5 million. Nearly 50% of our clients who have former private equity or venture capital experience on much larger deals realize they're not well suited for smaller deals.
If you’re an accountant, it might be a different story. Accountants may have done similar work to due diligence in bookkeeping, but transaction accounting is a very different ballgame. You wouldn’t hire a shoulder surgeon to do brain surgery on you! If you're in the jungle and you need something done, sure, it would be better than nothing, but in acquisitions, you want to hire the best person for the job. There’s a graveyard of people who owe the bank, wishing they had spent on diligence. As an accountant, you still might benefit from our services.
Incompatible Client: You’re a Junky for Empty Brand Names
If you believe that the biggest company does the best job, we’re here to tell you that you’re mistaken—and probably not a good match for our firm. Although our firm has grown to nearly 30 people, we’re not a regional CPA firm. We believe that you should get what you want out of your diligence spend. That means the best of the best, not the B, C, D, or E team that a larger firm might be offering you. Buyers compete to work with the A team at larger firms. These larger CPA firms charge hourly. They will try to convince you that any number of slightly non-GAAP items are mission-critical in order to push up their fees. You may not even know when it’s happening.
The first comprehensive check in any diligence process is shown in our sample QoE report. All the other items that a big accounting firm might bring into the conversation are only important if the QoE is done. As a self-funded buyer, you should run the other way if your accountant starts making molehills into mountains. You’ll never be able to tell a CPA that an item is not relevant. If they can convince you that all these little items are relevant, not only will you spend unnecessary money on faulty diligence, but you won’t sleep nearly as well at night.
If you’re willing to take the downsides of working with a larger CPA firm, we’re not the firm for you. We want you to get what you came for: a realistic understanding of the company that you want to buy.
Incompatible Client: You’re An Overly Prudent Person or a Cheapskate
You might not be a great fit for us, but not because our solutions aren’t cost-effective. Our services are comprehensive, private equity level diligence at affordable fees for buyers that realize they need good work and are concerned about the implications of personally guaranteeing $1,000,000 plus risk.
The dollars going out the door matter more to you than the dollars coming in the door and your time spent on other priorities like family time. You’d rather take their vehicle’s transmission to your uncle instead of a transmission auto shop—knowing that once you take the transmission apart, you cannot put it back together without specialized expertise. You’d spend two months doing a paint job yourself rather than spending $200 on a paint job even though you get paid $200/hour and are also slacking in spending time with family. You’re probably not worried about the return on investment you’ll get with diligence. You will question every dollar spent rather than every return dollar made. Since our services are an investment for buyers who want a return, we might not be the best fit.
On the other hand, if you’re the perfect fit for our firm, let’s get going. You can get started here.